CRM utilization antecedents have major role in the extent of system usage and they are in relationship on how employee experiences in overall whether the sys-tem is easy to use or useful. CRM syssys-tem’s perceived ease-of-use and perceived usefulness can be seen as a critical success factors in the system itself and if em-ployees are able to bring any benefits by using the system. Many interviewees emphasized that CRM should be useful for them, for instance make their lives easier, speed up their sales processes or to be able to manage better customer relationships by gaining useful insights from the data that CRM provides. By the same token, CRM’s easiness to use was said to be one of the most important mat-ters concerning the overall employees’ experience with the system and how it is used. There was some variation within the companies, since some employees thought that CRM is rather easy to use and self-explanatory, when some employ-ees felt that the system is not user friendly at all and makes it difficult to use which, in turn, affects their motivation to use that system.
4.2.1 Perceived ease-of-use
Employees had moderately similar views what ease-of-use means for them and what kind of impact it has towards their work. Many emphasized that system’s ease-of-use plays an integral part in their work and it is in relationship on how well they can perform their job.
A1: “It probably has a key significance. Ease-of-use plays a huge role.”
B1: “In my opinion CRM should be as clear and simple as possible and easy to use that it can be used without that you have to spend a lot of time and effort to learn it… And this 365 [Dynamics 365] is, at least in my opinion, quite clear and simple so it can be used, but on the whole it is precisely ease of use and simplicity that creates the basis for its usability in general… If it is difficult to add some information or difficult to find information then there is a risk that it will not be used at all.”
C2: “For me ease-of-use in systems means that at glance you can see wherever you are, you know the meaning what you are supposed to do at that page.”
Next it was asked what kind perceptions employees’ have concerning of the ease-of-use of the current system. Noteworthy aspect was that it varied within organ-izations whether the CRM was easy to use or if employees felt that the system is clear and self-explanatory for them. It was said that the system is mainly easy to use, because it is intuitive, and the user interface follows similar protocol from other Microsoft software. However, some employees said that the system is dis-organized, and it is difficult to use. Especially employees from client company C felt that the CRM system’s usefulness suffers from the fact that it is not easy to use. Another noteworthy aspect is that all the other organizations were private
companies and somewhat “sales organizations”, while the company C was a public sector company, and it did not have to have sales processes in similar ex-tent.
C1: “The ease-of-use or the user interface supports your work, in a way. So, it is really im-portant… I would not say that it is the easiest system what I have used. So, there is still room for improvement.”
C2: ”It is complex… The user interface should describe the doing itself, so it does not describe that now.”
Moreover, the interviewee C2 stated that if CRM system needs to be trained for the employees then there are problems with the user interface. The main issues that affected the easy-of-use in this case were the complex user interface and in-sufficient integrations that did not work well. In addition, compared to other or-ganizations the company C used their CRM primarily as a customer register and in the future for the marketing automation tasks. The reasons for their distinctive CRM utilization experience will be discussed later.
Employees in other organizations felt that the system is quite easy-to-use, but there are some features that make it difficult to use occasionally or that the system could be clearer. Another thing that rose from the interviews is that some-times the vast amount of features and possibilities might affect negatively the ease-of-use.
B1: “The 365 is easy-to-use and visually moderately clear, it has clear steps that help you to get forward, and the general appearance is adequate when you have used it for a while.”
D2: “Ease-of-use might not be as easy as it could be, because CRM system usually contains quite a lot information about a customer or potential customer or former customer and presenting this vast body of data to be easily used has not been entirely unambiguous in these Dynamics CRM.”
F1: “I think in general it is easy-to-use, but it requires some familiarity… guidance.”
Another thing what was mentioned in the interviews was the system’s language and user’s computer self-efficacy. It was said if the system is in English it is easier to collaborate with foreign parts of the company or with suppliers if the company itself is global. On the other hand, it occurred that not all of the employees are able to use CRM that well if they are not that capable in English or if sort of Finglish is used in the system that might decrease the overall employee experi-ence. Already in the CRM system’s development and implementation stage the language option should be considered carefully from the company’s point of view, but also from employees’ point of view, since their familiarity with a lan-guage affects their ability to work with the system.
D1: “We have started with the Finnish system being introduced so it is a bit silly and now we are stuck in sort of Finglish sometimes and it poses quite big challenges if there are foreign suppliers or developers, and it poses other challenges…”
E2: “We are using English version, because we are a global company and to ensure that the lan-guage is same in every country. If there is a problem we can immediately speak the same lanlan-guage about it… and we have this IT helpdesk in Sweden, because of that.”
F1: “If IT skills or language skills are not that good… because we also use the English system and I know that it poses challenges for some of our users that you don’t have the language skills, so that you could use so easily the system.”
4.2.2 Perceived usefulness
Perceived usefulness had a vital role in overall CRM utilization and how employ-ees’ view the system itself and its effect on their own user experience. To be able to get benefits from the system it had to be easy-to-use and employees needed to understand what kind of value CRM utilization provides for them. Almost all interviewees felt that the system is useful for them and it has useful features that makes their work and tasks easier. Things that emerged from the interviews were that employees need to gain something from the system usage to be willing to use it at first place and secondly, the CRM’s perceived usefulness is related to their overall employee experience and how they get their job done.
First theme concerning CRM’s usefulness was related to what kind of per-ceptions employees have regarding usefulness in overall and what does it mean for them. It was said that the system should be useful and provide some value for its users, otherwise the system implemented is used wrong or the system itself do not meet the needs of end-users. In addition, CRM system should be relatively fast and provide information clearly for its users to gain benefits. Another thing that rose was that employees who have used the system in greater extent than their counterparts or are more sufficient to use the system have better views of the system’s usefulness and probably are able to use it more comprehensively.
C1: “And then usefulness for that case… Different systems are used to gain some benefits, also in this CRM when there is all the information and it has been updated and as many people in the organization as possible would use it who work with the same things, so it would be very useful.”
C2: “Usefulness means that added value is gained for the business, either to reduce or make work easier, and it has wide range of effects when employee is facilitated or makes the job easier.”
D2: “The CRM system is very necessary and useful for us in terms of sales and marketing…
When it’s being actively used the business processes are better realized and we can standardize customer experience… On the other hand, those who do not actively use it also find it somehow slow or inconvenient, or that no additional information can be found there, but that it is a kind of glorified Excel sheet on which sales management would want you to write things so the sales information would be accessible to everyone.”
Interviewees from the client companies stated that system’s usefulness becomes apparent by its features and capabilities that the system can be used for. The most significant benefits that the system provided is being up-to-date with customer information, acquiring relevant customer data and storing the data. Moreover, it eases employees’ job and it accelerates their sales and marketing processes. Thus,
almost all of the interviewees noted that the current CRM system is useful for them and for their organization and it depends on the organization, what kind of benefits the system utilization brings for them.
A1: “I find this [CRM] a huge benefit in keeping the numbers up to date.”
F1: “I personally think, from that tool you should form that kind of view that I try to find the things there why it is useful for my work. I don’t see it as a mandatory evil that I should use rather I want to use it because I think it facilitates my work.”